AGEST tops Heron Quality Star Ratings

Publication Date: 6 February 2007
Publication:: SuperReview.com,au

The Australian Government Employees Superannuation Trust (AGEST) has emerged a substantial winner in the latest Heron Quality Star Ratings released by Melbourne-based research house The Heron Partnership.

The Quality Star Ratings, released this week, deemed AGEST the best value for money product among superannuation funds and master trusts operating in the retail arena.

According to the managing director of The Heron Partnership, Chris Butler, Australia’s choice of superannuation fund environment has led to increased competition between funds and a dramatic improvement in the types of products and services being offered. However, this, in turn, had altered the performance of funds rated with the Heron formula.

“The increase in product features, improvement in services and the additional costs incurred in promoting funds has resulted in many funds increasing their management and/or investment costs,” Butler said. “When fees are taken into account, of the retail products awarded five Heron quality stars, AGEST represents the best value for money.”

However, while AGEST may have finished at the top of the tree, it did so in good company, with 26 other retail products also scoring the top Heron rating.

An interesting facet of the 2007 Heron Quality Star Ratings is that of the top 10 rated retail funds, there were four commercial master trusts and six industry funds, while within the top 10 rated corporate products there were eight commercial master trusts and two industry funds.

Butler said the superannuation market has become very competitive, and those products that had earned the five star rating had been deemed to have a strong market presence due to the overall quality of service they provided and the package of features they made available.

The Heron Quality Star Ratings awarded five stars for “outstanding” performance against the company’s criteria, four stars for “commendable”, three stars for “good”, two stars for “poor” and one star for “unacceptable”.

While most funds will be happy to find themselves in either of the five or four star ratings categories, a number of larger funds might be unhappy to have been left out of the highest possible category.

Among the notable funds and master trusts to be awarded the “commendable” four stars were UniSuper, MLC Masterkey Super and BT Lifetime Super.